diff --git a/src/buddhagpt/collect.py b/src/buddhagpt/collect.py
index abc0085..1c0d8dd 100644
--- a/src/buddhagpt/collect.py
+++ b/src/buddhagpt/collect.py
@@ -64,11 +64,11 @@ def collect_frontier(items: list[dict], out: Path, model: str = "moonshotai/kimi
         for it in items:
             if (it["id"], system) in done:
                 continue
-            # max_tokens=3000, not 1000: kimi-k3 emits hidden reasoning tokens that
-            # draw from the same budget as the visible answer even with
-            # reasoning.enabled=False; 1000 was observed to exhaust on harder
-            # prompts and return empty content (finish_reason="length").
-            text, _ = chat(client, model, [{"role": "user", "content": it["prompt"]}], max_tokens=3000)
+            # max_tokens=8000: kimi-k3 spends heavily on hidden reasoning tokens; 8000
+            # leaves room for the visible answer — 3000 produced empty responses on hard
+            # prompts (finish_reason="length"). Hidden reasoning tokens draw from the
+            # same budget as the visible answer even with reasoning.enabled=False.
+            text, _ = chat(client, model, [{"role": "user", "content": it["prompt"]}], max_tokens=8000)
             if not text or not text.strip():
                 continue  # leave undone for a future rerun rather than write empty content
             f.write(json.dumps({"prompt_id": it["id"], "system": system, "response": text}) + "\n")